One reason only music by "long dead composers" is being played in the "thriving musical culture" in Britain (Letters, 6 February) is that amateur orchestras cannot afford the enormous cost of hiring sets of orchestral parts, since most modern works are only available from hire companies. Our orchestra can borrow sets of the traditional repertoire through the inter-library service at a cost of between £10 and £40 a set. This year we shall be playing the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto, which will cost us almost £200 to hire. We had hoped to play Walton's Henry V music also, but that would have doubled the cost. We are not obsessed with the past, but hampered by the purse-strings. Only when there is money available for good amateur orchestras will contemporary composers get the support they deserve.